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Tonight a friend and I took in a play at Le Chat Noir, it was the first time either of us had been to this very awesome theater in the Warehouse District of New Orleans. They’ve been around over 10 years. Everything about the experience was awesome. TWO DOLLAR parking! TWO Dollars, in the lot next to the building. I think that is fairly unheard of anywhere else I’ve been in the city. The doors opened an hour before the show so we each got a drink at the bar. My $8 glass of Amaretto had enough liquor in it to constitute maybe 3 drinks elsewhere, it’s a good think they let you bring your drink with you into the theater.

I’d wanted to be early, because I didn’t know where the theater was and the Internet tickets said General Admission. I wanted to be sure we got a good seat. Turns out we had an assigned table, and as luck would have it, we were seated at the very edge of the stage. We took our seats only mildly worried about whether or not there would be an audience participation portion in the play, they were really good seat at a small table our programs waiting for us.

The play was Zombie Town: A Documentary Play (link to different theater, but better description of play) .The premise of the play was that these five actors where part of a group that had gone to Texas to collect the stories of the survivors from a town that had been attacked by Zombies. They then proceeded to present monologues the the survivors’ own words. In that respect it reminded me a little of the Spoon River Anthology. It was great, funny for the outset. Each actor took on various roles, accents, speech patterns, basic costume elements and the story pieced itself together to it hilarious conclusion. There were references to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jaws, and the local theater awards. At the end, the actors took their bows, commented about choking on the Karo syrup, and one of the actress came to our table and personally thanked us for laughing.

I highly recommend Zombie Town: A Documentary Play in New Orleans, held over ’til July 25th or anywhere if you ever get the chance to see it and Le Chat Noir, if you’ve never been down there before.

Caught the matinee of White Noise at Le Petit Theatre in the French Quarter. Le Petit is the oldest community theater in America. I’ve seen several very good plays today, so my expectations were high.

White Noise was okay. I am glad I went in the sense that, if we want Broadway quality theater in New Orleans we have to support what we get.

The musical tackles racial issues, but some of the characters seem to lack direction or maybe development. The individual beats/songs were good (there was a hilarious bit where the choreography seemed to be lifted from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), but I just wasn’t thrilled by show as a whole. There seemed to be something missing. The actress who played Mama had a really good voice.

My friends compared it to a movie called American History X, which I will have to rent. It was an pleasant afternoon, and I had a really decent lunch at Landry’s.

I guess I just really expect more, after reading all the rave reviews. Expectations…